Post is also available in: Italian
Today I want to offer you a recipe that comes from my many cookbooks, the Fennel Bavarian. They are small single-portion cold flans, perfect for a light but tasty appetizer. They are soft, similar to mousses, made with fresh ricotta and fennel.
Making them is really simple. They are a good way to prepare many portions without too much effort, ideal for when you have many guests.

Tips for Preparing Fennel Bavarian
To make the perfect mini Fennel Bavarian, try to buy fresh fennel. In this way you will avoid those annoying filaments, that will make the mixture unpleasant and sifting the mixture, is really boring, long and above all it will lead you to waste mixture. Use creamy ricotta not the “floury” type, it will help to have a creamy and smooth mixture.

If you use steel molds, butter them so you can unmold them without problems, use a cloth soaked in hot water to do this. Place it for a few seconds around the molds in order to unmold them without damaging them. If you use silicone ones, just gently pull the sides to detach the edges, turn them over and always carefully detach the bottom.

Fennel Bavarian
Ingredients
- 700 g Fennels fresh
- 200 g Cow Ricotta Cheese
- 150 g Yellow Onions
- 100 g Fresh Cream
- 30 g Butter
- 15 g Isinglass
- 1 Egg
- 1 tbs Fennel Leaves
- 1 Lemon Juice
- to taste Salt
Sauce
- 1 Lemon Juice
- 1 tsp Fennel Leaves
- 6 tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- to taste Black Pepper
- 5 g Salt
Instructions
- Wash and chop the fennel. Chop the fennel leaves and set them aside. Thinly slice the onion.
- Heat a saucepan with the butter and add the onion and stew it over low heat to keep it from turning brown. Add the fennel and continue to stew with the onion for about twenty minutes.
- Add the fennel and continue to stew with the onion for about twenty minutes. Add the juice of one lemon and the salt, and turn off the heat. Mix well and then blend everything.
- Once lukewarm, put the cream back into the saucepan by adding the egg and cream. Put the isinglass in cold water. Heat the fennel mixture over medium heat, stirring often to make it thicken.
- When the mixture becomes creamy, add the isinglass and ricotta. Remove the cream from the heat and mix well, to avoid lumps, season with salt and add a part of the chopped leaves.
- If you use metal stencils, butter them. Pour the mixture into the molds, let them cool and then put them in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
- Emulsify 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, the juice of 1 lemon, salt, pepper and the rest of the leaves. Turn out the Bavarian cream, serve pouring over the sauce and decorate to taste.